Comments on: Is it Easy to Do Business With Your Company?

By: Joanna M. Pineda

Joanna M. Pineda — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:50:34 +0000

Lowell, the same thing has happened to me! There aren’t little letters on the numbers of my cell phone, so I’m always dead in the water from my car. Oh well, another good reason to quit making calls from the car and just listen to the radio. :-) Thanks for the comment!

By: Steve Dorfman

Steve Dorfman — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:02:14 +0000

Great points. One of the things I loved about reading this post, Joanna, is that almost every one of those things has happened to me (including Lowell’s example). ;)

It’s time we all took a close look at what we’re doing to get in our own way — those things that are making it difficult for people to do business with us. Thanks for sharing.

By: Lowell

Lowell — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:40:28 +0000

Excellent post, Joanna, with great examples of “duh” mistakes.
My wife needed to call about an issue with our American Express credit card. I was driving, she picked up her cell phone to call the number on the back: “1-888-blue-741”. Ever try to translate b-l-u-e into the corresponding numerals on your cell phone’s numerals-only keypad? Frustrating. After a few failed attempts at drawing out the entire “historical” keypad on paper, she called successfully, got things straightened out and asked the operator to pass on the suggestion that using numerals is better with so many cell phones in use in this “modern age”. The operator thought it a good idea, too.

Here’s an idea. What if marketing communications people pretended to be consumers and actually tried out the instructions they just drafted — in typical, real life situations. They might notice that toll-free numbers like 1-800-GET-REAL may look cool, appear to be easier to remember, but a tedious to hunt and peck out on a traditional keypad - not to mention near impossible on the ubiquitous cell phone keypad. (Hey, was I just on a rant or something?)